A food item that many of us didn’t hear about until adulthood and now it’s everywhere. So many varieties (on top of the basic chickpea/tahini foundation).
On a recent episode of Milk Street Chris Kimball talked about having hummus in Israel. He said it was very creamy, almost like a porridge, nothing like the firm spreadable substance that one finds here. And of course, he expressed disdain for supermarket hummus and said you need to make your own with dried chickpeas. He said people eat it for breakfast with a few cooked chickpeas on top. What do I know? I’ve never been to Israel.
Have you had hummus like this in Israel?
Do you like hummus?
Do you make your own from scratch?
Did you grow up with it?
How do you eat it? Straight up, as a dip/spread, as a sandwich filling?
Edumacate me on the subject. I made it once many years ago. Don’t remember how it turned out. When I have the store-bought kind, I usually add more lemon and more garlic.
If you make your own from dried/rehydrated chickpeas and you wanna go the extra mile, take your cooked beans in one huge bowl, set down another huge empty bowl beside and put on a cheers re-run or some damned thing. Take a bean out one at a time and squeeze gently so the actual bean separates from the hull.
Probably take you 15-30min to hull a LB but you bet the results are worth the labour. It’s the trick to velvety textured hummus. I go hard on the tahini and olive oil and skip the garlic personally.
Should also add, I like a dusting of dried sumac and chopped parsley on top, and a drizzle of olive oil. It’s how they serve it in good Lebanese places around here.
The lil’wrekkers Boyfriend is Palestinian. He makes the best hummus. He hulls the peas as well. I like the garlic heavy. He fusses cause I tell him ‘more’ garlic! His is much thinner than the stuff from the store. I could live on it for a few months.
We eat it with bread, crackers, veggies.
I just make mine from canned chick peas. I drain the fluid but save it in case I want to thin out the hummus.
I have had hummus in Israel, but it was a while back and I do not recall if it was smooth or thicker. Yes I like it, and yes I have made it from scratch. It is great to bring to parties, just slice up some veggies and/or pita bread, and it goes a long way. No, I did not grow up with it. And I typically eat it as a dip/spread.
Sure - my favorite hummus joint here in Tel Aviv has very creamy hummus. But hummus comes in different forms, and different levels of thickness and firmness. In my experience, the more tahini it has in it, the smoother it is. Also, supermarket hummus is generally, but not always, thicker and firmer.
Yep. Eat it just about every day.
Nope. No need.
This is kind of embarrassing - I grew up in an immigrant family, and I had a major aversion to hummus until my 20s. It was only when I started dating my wife that I started eating it, mainly to make a good impression on my future father-in-law, and I found I really liked it.
As a dip, in a pita, as a condiment on falafel, shawarma and other stuff. With my finger on occasion.
Have you had hummus like this in Israel?
I think I have had that at a Festival in Brooklyn in a pita.
Do you like hummus?
I like hummus, I don’t love it, but like is a perfect description.
Do you make your own from scratch?
Never have, I would never bother.
Did you grow up with it?
No, but I discovered it long ago in my early 20s. Probably about 30 years ago. Maybe being in the NYC area helped with earlier exposure.
How do you eat it? Straight up, as a dip/spread, as a sandwich filling?
I eat it as a dip, spread and sandwich filling.
That is the way (or at least one way) of making it extra creamy. I’ve also heard of people doing it with chickpea flour – I tried it once with some Indian besan flour, but it didn’t quite seem right to me. It’s possible the bag was a bit stale (it had been sitting in my cupboard for a year), or it could be that it’s not quite the same as chickpea flour. (Actually, looking it up, it seems that besan flour is made from a different kind of chickpea than chickpea flour, so maybe that was the issue.) I do enjoy hummus quite a bit, but I tend not to like it to be a garlic bomb. Garlic is fine, I just don’t want it to be overpowering. And I want a good sesame kick (I’ve had some hummuses without tahini, and that confused me. Hummus isn’t part of my culture growing up, but when I was introduced to it, the types I’ve always had, tahini was very much a key part of the flavor.)
I have a couple of times just as an experiment, but honestly the stuff in the shops is not expensive and frankly miles better than my efforts.
God no. I’d eaten it a couple of times on holiday prior to 2000-ish. It started showing up around the turn of the century in larger supermarkets. Now it’s ubiquitous - even small village shops carry a couple of types. (Not speaking for the whole of the UK here - I live in the semi-sticks in Scotland)
Oh, interesting. What’s the general range available? Like, I’m curious as to what is considered average levels of tahini and what is considered tahini heavy.
Love it. Never heard of it as a kid, discovered it as an adult. I’ve thought about trying to make my own but my wife thinks it would be a disaster.
Stupid question maybe, but where would I find tahini? I’ve looked for it at the grocery store but to be honest, I have no idea what I’m looking for so I’m probably looking in the wrong spot.
I am not a big fan. I don’t hate it but would rather go for baba ganoush first. I have had it both on the firm and creamy sides, I don’t know if the latter is “authentic” but from Levantine restaurants.
I have seen (including in Israel) both the roasted chickpeas kind of hummus (like msabbaha and qdahmah), as well as the creamy type of hummus. The obvious difference is that the creamy/spreadable stuff has the chickpeas mashed up, for starters, and it’s not 100% chickpeas: there is tahini, lemon juice, garlic, onions, olive oil, parsley, salt, and/or a bunch of other optional stuff blended in there. That is where you get into regional and even individual variations: easy enough to make it super creamy by dumping in loads of tahini, for example. Or, for instance, I met someone from Northern Africa who said she could not stand the hummus she was served in Lebanon (yes, some people do eat it for breakfast) because it was too creamy and served with loads of oil swimming on top. Or you can make it with or without spices, etc.
As for Israeli hummus specifically, they do indeed sell loads of it in supermarkets (and some of the Israeli supermarket brands of hummus, like Sabar, are also commonly found in America and Europe), and while it’s not bad or anything, it is a mass-produced supermarket product with preservatives and not even close to good fresh hummus from an actual hummus place in Israel (or Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, etc.). The generic supermarket stuff is kind of… average, not especially runny but not especially firm either, and it comes in plastic tubs. You can probably try it yourself if you live near a big supermarket: just look for the Israeli brands. You can get it with various garnishes/toppings.
As for serving it, what I would do is just serve it with very slightly toasted pita wedges you can use to wipe it up. As a filling it will work with falafel or something similar. I like it fine, but it’s not something I would eat at every single meal or at breakfast. The tastiest hummus I have ever had has been at lunch in hummus cafes in the Middle East; the common denominator is they make it themselves and they know what they are doing; so I would say don’t even bother with the supermarket tubs unless you are jonesing for hummus in which case it’s better than nothing.
Forgot to add, once I did make it myself: cooked the peas in a pressure cooker, mashed them up, added the other ingredients, etc., and the result was far superior to any generic store-bought product, but it was enough work that I don’t think I will bother to try it again anytime soon.
Note, the hummus doesn’t necessarily have to be in paste form; it’s less preparation work if you just leave them whole and add a bit of lemon juice, parsley, pepper, garlic, whatever according to taste.
Tahini is sesame paste. Like peanut butter, but made from sesame seeds. This brand has been in grocery stores forever, long before the current hummus craze.
never been to Israel, but I love the stuff. What I get from restaurants around here (SE Michigan, lots of Lebanese, Syrian, etc.) is fairly smooth. I’ve made my own from scratch following this recipe:
It tasted great but I’d have cut back just a bit on the tahini, it was a bit too “thin” for my liking. only modification was I did the chickpeas in an instant pot.
Around here in Chicago, you can find tahini at most grocery stores. It’s typically in the international section. I’m sure that doesn’t help you if you don’t have an international section, though. I’ve also sometimes seen it in the condiments aisle, near the olives and things like that. If you have a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods near where you live, you should be able to find it there, too, but I just go to my local grocery and they have it in the international section.
Also, as mentioned, any Indian grocery stores, but also any Middle Eastern grocery stores.